The people involved in running the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand - profiles our of our Patron, Keri Hulme, and the National Council - Lewis Holden, David Farrar, Dave Guerin, Jordan Carter and Savage.
Patron
Keri Hulme has been the patron of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand since 1996. Keri knows Aotearoa New Zealand will become a republic, but wants it to happen sooner, rather than later. She is a writer and fisher, born in 1947 of Kai Tahu descent. Although Keri "doesn't go in for fishing competitions", her writing has won many national and international awards - most notably the 1985 Booker Prize for her novel The Bone People.
National Council
Lewis J Holden (Chair) has been involved with the Republican Movement since early 2004 and became the President (since renamed Chair) at the end of 2006, having been elected to the National Council in 2004. Lewis developed his own detailed republican blog The Holden Republic, which was discontinued in 2008. Lewis is a recent graduate, working in the IT industry.
David Farrar owns and manages a small polling and market research company, Curia Market Research. Prior to that he spent eight years in Parliament working for National Party Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders from Bolger to Brash. David is currently the Chair of the Classical Liberals Policy Advisory Group of the National Party and runs the popular politics blog kiwiblog.co.nz.
Dave Guerin (Treasurer) has been a member of the Republican Movement since it was founded and is a previous President from 1996 - 2006. He supports republicanism because he believes in democracy, New Zealanders' independence and political appointments based on merit. Dave is a partner in an education consulting business, which he started with some colleagues after finishing university. He grew up in Wellington, where he still lives and works.
Savage - (Common Cause liason) - was a founding member of the Republican Coalition in 1994 and served as the first President. Savage has a MA (Film, TV and Media) BA (Hons) in Politics and Philosophy. Savage was previously involved in the Electoral Reform Coalition during the MMP campaign in 1993 and the Auckland City Council STV campaign 2002 - 2003. His short film 'Watermark' won Best NZ short film at the 2002 Drifting Clouds Short Film festival, and he won a 'Spark' business award from Auckland University for his business start-up in 2002.
Jordan Carter is an Aucklander temporarily on location in Wellington. He has been involved in Labour politics for ten years, and works full time for an Internet NGO doing policy and lobbying work. Born in Canada and raised in South Auckland, he has never quite understood why the countries he calls home have an English aristocrat as their head of state. He believes the Monarchy's time has passed, and that New Zealand needs to decide a model for an indigenous republic, and adopt it. Jordan has his own blog called Just Left.
